We have to remember, the purpose of this plant is to provide generation in the event of a *total* GTA blackout. The Crosstown's electrical system is already designed with redundant feed points, so if the lights go off in one part of the city they just feed from the other side of town.
That total blackout scenario is a pretty rare event. Clearly Crosstown has to have a standby power so it can bring trains to the stations and evacuate passengers. Perhaps it even makes sense to operate long enough to get people to their intended destination point, so they are not stranded across town in a blackout. But any continued operation beyond that makes no sense. In a total blackout (similar to 2003, or the ice storm) the civic response will be to tell people to stay home or shelter in place. Nobody will want to take the LRT someplace.
ML wanted the large plant.....because a) they had this vision that if there were a catastrophic power failure, Crosstown should keep running day or night for all time thereafter and b) because it was large and shiny. It made no sense. Cogen for the area was only added because the plant was obviously a white elephant for the true purpose, and some other use had to be invented to justify its huge cost.
Some posters have raised the issue of whether we should be encouraging small local generation instead of relying on the grid. That's a fair debate, but ML should be focussing on transit and letting some other group advance that cause. Personally, adding gas emissions to an urban residential neighbourhood makes less sense than relying on emission free hydro or nuclear or wind or solar power, but others may feel otherwise. Once charged, a battery system could be trickle-charged by solar panels and remain ready for an emergency.
We don't exactly need more gas generation capacity in this province, for this decade anyways.
- Paul
